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Why Open Source?

From the desk of CEO Ned Lilly

xTuple is more than just accounting, ERP and CRM. It’s more than simply “business management software.”

We aspire for xTuple to be the default business operating system for every company, every person, every organization — in the world. Nothing less than the standard infrastructure upon which products are made, workers are employed, wealth is created, and vast distances and international borders are reduced to simple ones and zeroes.

xTuple distributes a basic free product, PostBooks® — with an easy upgrade path to commercial editions — because we expect growth and success on the part of every user.

We are inherently optimistic that quality can, and should, always be improved — as the open source truism goes, "with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow."

xTuple seeks to simplify decision-making, to remove friction in the wheels of commerce, and in so doing, to create more opportunity for all users.

xTuple is inherently global in its makeup, and in the means of its ongoing development. Its professional community is ever-expanding, civil, and interconnected.

The promise of xTuple is a profitable, healthy, efficient business that knows no boundaries of possibility or geography.

On open source: Linus Torvalds, Finnish American software engineer who was the principal force behind the development of the Linux kernel, noted on security and bugs, “given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow” or, more formally, “given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix will be obvious to someone.”

Top 10 reasons to use Open Source

1. Quality. Removing proprietary boundaries and allowing any developer to participate, debate, compromise and inspire each other is why code written in open source communities is of higher quality and doesn't degrade in quality over time.

2. Innovation. Companies get involved in collaborative software development to advance business objectives and to benefit from industry innovation. Open source dramatically increases a company’s proficiency to build new products or services and the ability to focus on what matters most.

3. Security. Once viewed as a weakness for open source software, security is a paramount benefit today. This has to do with the transparency of open source as well as the scrutiny it receives from all of its users.

4. Community. Open source has the power to build communities of passionate people who believe in the technologies. Encouraging the collective brainpower of the many — anyone can participate regardless of affiliation — to overcome an industry's toughest challenges together. Collaborative development not only makes individuals smarter; companies benefit from a much larger R&D effort, exposure to new tools and development practices, and a shorter product development cycle/faster time to market.

5. Freedom. If you need to change a feature, migrate or roll out new services, you can do that by participating in the open source community and being part of the change. The ability to access source code, add features, and fix code yourself is a main reason users choose to use open software. It represents to them greater choice, more functionality and interoperability, and lower costs.

6. Adaptability. Open source is not tied to any one individual vendor. The open source development model allows software to adapt quickly to changing times, to evolve as the industry does.

7. Choice. With open software development, users can pick what works for them versus the one-size-fits-all approach of proprietary software. Today there are over 1 million open source projects with over 100 billion lines of code with 10 million people contributing.

8. Interoperability. Most businesses use solutions from more than one vendor to fill their needs. A common, open source platform means solutions can be interoperable, and you can choose the right solution versus getting locked-in to a single solution that doesn't meet all of your needs. Using software that is technology-agnostic, i.e., it can run on and operate seamlessly between Windows, Mac or Linux platforms and is accessible from anywhere via the Web — mobile devices, too — is a huge competitive advantage.

9. Flexibility. Open source makes it easier to customize software solutions to your business processes and needs, using global best practices. Business software technology is still a complex tool, and not every company has the time and internal IT resources, or the programming background, to tackle it. Well-heeled community-minded open source vendors typically include internal custom development teams who are subject matter experts with the skills to analyze your needs and deliver a high-value solution, on-time and on-budget.

10. Affordability. Open source not only costs less up front; it's easier to scale over time versus a proprietary system that adds more cost and complexity as it grows. A top reason for moving to open source software is to avoid costly vendor lock-in. Open source helps improve efficiency and lower costs, reinforcing its true value.

We invite you to join the Collective Brainpower that is xTuple. It is your next — and final — business management software solution to Grow Your World®.

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